4 Common Maintenance Problems and How to Resolve Them

Thomas L. Lantz
Maintenance problem-solving is primarily concerned with four areas: maintaining critical systems,
fixing the problem quickly and faster than the last time, determining what is causing the breakdown
to happen so frequently, and identifying the 20 percent of breakdowns that are consuming 80
percent of your resources.

Identification
What about the real-world situations? Industrial maintenance often presents situations that are so
confusing that problems are camouflaged. Sorting out the mess means finding the basic problem
that spawns all the other effects. This is not easy, as you may solve the wrong problem or try to
alleviate symptoms caused by the basic problem. For example, you may put coolers on hot
hydraulic systems instead of locating the valve or cylinder that is allowing fluid to flow back to the
tank.

Cause and Effect

To properly solve cause-and-effect problems, you
must first learn how to distinguish between cause
and effect. Effects are things you perceive with
your senses or detect through condition
monitoring techniques. They accompany or
precede a machine failure.
Typical effects are excessive heat, vibration and
noise. A failed bearing or gear is also an effect.
Simply changing the component is concentrating
on the effect. While this often must be done to
restore operation, forgetting about the reason for the failure is neglecting the cause. For instance,
excessive heat in a hydraulic system is an effect and a predictor of problems. Concentrating on
cooling the system rather than discovering the cause of the excessive heat is an invitation to
problems but an all too common solution. Attack the symptom, but don’t forget to unearth the root
cause. Remember, symptom is a synonym for effect.

Means
Typical questions that characterize means problems include how to reduce excessive lubricant
failures, how to decrease lubricant costs while maintaining good quality, how to lessen machine
downtime, how to improve safety and how to change the department mindset to prevention mode.
Solving a means problem often involves finding an expert, but you should never assume the
current method is the final answer. Improvement is always possible.
Ends
Problems of ends or goals can be characterized by the question, “What goal should I pursue?”
What are the critical parts of systems that must be constantly monitored, and how are problems
categorized (critical, important and projects for correction).

Levels of Problem-solving
In addition to recognizing the four problem types, you must also be aware that problem-solving can
be divided into four levels of sophistication:
• reaction or acting on the problem when it occurs and then forgetting about it until the next
time;
• adaptation or learning to live with the problem by adjusting to the symptoms;
• anticipation, which includes attacking root causes with preventive techniques; and
• a proactive approach, which involves changing the conditions that spawned the problem in
the first place.

Categories of Objectives
Short-term Routine Objectives (Supervision)
Routine objectives include maintaining things as they are, handling normal (expected) problems,
reacting quickly, having lots of spares and adapting to the problem (learning to live with it).

Medium-term Corrective Objectives (Management)

Corrective objectives usually involve the elimination of accepted problems or modifying a design to
solve an inherent problem.

Long-term Improvement Objectives (Leadership)

Improvement objectives might consist of requesting new equipment, changing the way things are
done, concentrating on prevention and providing better training.
Most problems have an immediate phase (or crisis) and must be addressed now. However,
managers who want to move to the leadership objectives will try to prevent or minimize a
recurrence.
 An example of an Ishikawa diagram of lube oil system strainer basket failures

Cause-and-Effect Methods
Two important techniques for establishing a problem’s true cause are the Ishikawa diagram and
the Kepner-Tregoe method. These techniques are especially useful with cause/effect problems that
defy solution.

Kepner-Tregoe Method of Problem-solving

1. Compare “what should be” with “what actually is.”
2. The deviation is the problem.
3. Identify the problem in terms of what, where (the “is”), when and extent.
4. Identify what lies outside the problem in terms of what, where (the “is not”), when and
extent.
5. Compare the “is” with the “is not” to identify changes and distinctions.
6. Find the most likely cause. The most likely cause of a deviation is one that exactly explains
all the facts in the problem. If one fact can’t be explained, omit that cause.
7. Look for something that has changed from normal operation.
The Ishikawa diagram helps you focus on the different aspects of a problem so the listed causes
will not be concentrated in one or two areas. For instance, most problems can be broken down into
four areas: personnel, maintenance practices, hardware and systems. Some problems may be
divisible into more than four, but with some imagination, most should yield at least these four.
These categories force you to look at a situation from multiple perspectives to generate possible
causes.
Some refer to these diagrams as fishbone diagrams or cause-and-effect (C-E) diagrams. They
encourage you to list as many causes as possible. To do this, you must withhold judgment until the
listing is complete to assure no one jumps to conclusions.
By contrast, the Kepner-Tregoe method relies on describing what the problem is, what it is not,
where it occurs and where it does not. In effect, you are building a fence around the problem to
keep important information inside (and under review) while keeping out extraneous information.
Your main thrust is to identify what has changed. The true cause will account for all effects. If one
effect could not be caused by the selected cause, that cause must be discarded.
About the Author
Thomas L. Lantz
Machinery Lubrication (2/2016)